Time Enough at Last?

“The best laid plans of mice and men...and Henry Bemis...the small man in the glasses who wanted nothing but time. Henry Bemis, now just a part of a smashed landscape, just a piece of the rubble, just a fragment of what man has deeded to himself."

Henry Bemis, a book-loving bank teller, is always reading at work. This causes him to shortcharge and annoy some of his customers. His boss wasn't too pleased, and he was told off. He reasoned that he reads at work, because it is the only time that he gets to read, considering that his wife forbids him to read.

His passion for books and reading is mocked by both his boss and his wife, considering reading as a waste of time, reserved for children. His wife even went as far as to play a cruel joke on him, asking him to read from a poetry book, only to find that all the pages have been blotted out with ink.


Desperate for a time and place to pursue his hobby, Henry spends his lunch break reading at work, making sure that he is out of his boss' sight. He goes down to the bank's vault, thinking his reading will not be disturbed.

Once inside the vault, huge explosion shook up the entire bank, causing debris to fell and knock him unconscious. He wakes up to find rubble everywhere: He is the last person alive on earth. He was the sole survivor of an H-bomb attack.

Being alone, his will was shattered. He managed to find resources to keep him alive. But with no one to share life with, what is his reason to live? Loneliness and despair consumes our protagonist, almost to the point of suicide when he stumbled upon a revolver.

He found his reason to live, when he found the public library somewhat intact, and the books still readable. The library was full of books he could read, with no one to tell him off, or interrupt him. Finally, he has the time and the place to pursue his hobby.

In an ironic twist, as he bends down to pick up his first book, he slips and accidentally breaks his glasses. He is virtually blind without them. The film ends with our protagonist weeping, surrounded by books he will never be able to read, even now that he has time enough at last.

This episode of the Twilight Zone tackles the dangerous side of science: When science and technology is used for weapons development. The H-bomb was a real scare back in the day, and rightly so. It is a weapon capable of much destruction and misery.